ALL 32 people on board a 55 year old DC-3 Dakota aircraft died yesterday when it was ditched into the North Sea near this Dutch naval town of Den Helder after reporting engine trouble, the coastguard said.
The second World War vintage craft, carrying 26 passengers and six crew, was owned by the Dutch Dakota Association and was carrying members and sponsors on the return leg of a pleasure trip from Amsterdam to Texel, an island just off the Dutch coast.
"We have recovered 31 bodies, one survivor who was taken to hospital has since died," said a coastguard spokesman, Mr Pieter Paap, confirming 32 people were on the flight.
He said the search and rescue operation around the plane, lodged on a sandbank in five feet of water, had been called off and efforts today would concentrate on recovering the wreckage.
The aircraft, used mainly for displays and pleasure trips, went into the sea after the pilot radioed that he had engine trouble.
"He had indicated that he wanted to make an emergency landing at the naval airbase at De Kooy," a navy spokesman said.
Eyewitnesses spoke of seeing apparently lifeless bodies still strapped into their seats, drifting in the water near the crash site.
Ms Anne Groeneveld, founder and president of the DDA said the aircraft was in perfect technical condition and had recently been checked by the national civilian aviation authority.
Eleven thousand Dakotas were built between 1935 and 1948, making it the most prolific transport aircraft ever produced.